South Ossetia CELEBRATES 10 years of Independence

August 26 marks the 10th anniversary of the recognition of South Ossetia’s independence following the republic’s war against Georgian government forces.

The world recalls the embarrassment and ineptitude of Saakashvili, who before he was somehow magically transformed into a Ukrainian politician, was actually the president of Georgia, from 2004-2007. In the famous video below, he literally eats his own tie, while waiting on the line with NATO for his orders ‘what to do next?’

FRN readers may also want to take note of the ‘out-of-place’ EU flag behind him. Georgia was not a member of the EU in 2007, and eleven years later, is still not. In fact, Angela Merkel recently reiterated, as FRN reported, that neither Georgia nor Ukraine are viable EU candidates. In essence, the Georgian attack on the break-away South Ossetian Republic, as well as the Ukrainian attack on the break-away Donbass republics of the DPR and LPR, were US-led adventures, which used the EU flag as some promissory note that could never actually be cashed in. Either that, or the Saakashvili curse simply follows the man wherever he goes.

Former secretary of the South Ossetian Security Council Anatoly Barankevish, said yesterday that the repetition of a conflict similar to the events of August 2008 is impossible while “in the republic there is the Russian military and relations with Moscow are still good.”

This Sunday, South Ossetia celebrates the 10th anniversary of the recognition of its independence by the Russian Federation. For the first time, the celebrations in the capital of the republic, Tskhinval, will be attended by the Syrian ambassador in Russia, Riad Haddad.

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Other guests will include the head of the People’s Republic of Donetsk, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the interim head of the People’s Republic of Lugansk, Leonid Pasechnik, delegations from Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, Russian regions, as well as a delegation of parliamentarians from the Federation and the State Duma of Russia.

Speaking about the possibility of the events of August 2008 repeating themselves, Barankevich stressed:

“While there are Russian troops, as long as there is agreement between Russia and South Ossetia, there will be no intervention on the part of Georgia and NATO.”

According to him, the Russian base and the Russian border guards are a security guarantor for South Ossetia.

“There will be no war as long as they are there. Most importantly, relations between South Ossetia and Russia will not deteriorate in any way,” he added.

On the night of August 8, 2008, Georgia attacked the Ossetian territory with multiple launchers of Grad rockets, destroying a part of the republic’s capital. In defending the inhabitants of South Ossetia, many of whom obtained Russian citizenship, Russia introduced troops into the republic and expelled the Georgian military after five days of military confrontation.

On August 26, 2008, Moscow recognized the sovereignties of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The example was followed by Nicaragua, Venezuela, Nauru, Vanuatu, Tuvalu and Syria.

Paul Antonopoulos is a Research Fellow at the Center for Syncretic Studies. He has an MA in International Relations and is interested in Great Power Rivalry as well as the International Relations and Political Economy of the Middle East and Latin America.